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Speculative Evolution Wiki:Manual of Style
Note that this style guide is currently under construction and as such does not cover all of our current requirements. It's come to my attention recently that we need a way to organise and standardise articles on our wiki. With sometimes deviating font size, strange article titles, and in some cases even misusing namespaces, this style guide will explain the conventions now in use on this wiki. All reviews of articles which do not follow the Manual of Style should be marked with . This style guide is the only one on this wiki and subpages will not be used. This presents all topics in full. Article Titles and Section Headings Article Titles Our wiki has different and additional conventions in creating article titles from Wikipedia, especially in capitalisation. Use title case in all article titles. This means to always capitalise the first word, and to capitalise all other words which are not prepositions, conjunctions, or articles. In rare cases, like in the project Future of The World, this can be broken, but currently this is the only case, and should stay the only case. When writing an article for a speculative evolution project other than the main page, always entitle it in the format "Page Name (Project Name)". "Page Name – Project Name", "Project Name: Page Name", or any other formats not mentioned are not accepted, and should be renamed by anyone who comes across this. Always italicise an article when its title would normally be italicised in a sentence. Unlike some other wikis, taxonomic genera, species, and subspecies should be italicised, along with book and film titles. These in general are the two cases of italics in article titles, but if another case arises where italics would be used on Wikipedia, do not hesitate to italicise the title. You cannot italicise a title when you first create the page; the template must be used. If part of a title is to be italicised, use the magic word. The code used for an example partially italicised title would be . Sections All articles must contain a lead section. The lead section is the portion of the article before any section headings, and should describe the major points of the topic, with details in latter sections. Factual articles should contain a section called "References" with the template. All citations will automatically be placed here. A "See Also" section is optional in factual articles, but should not be placed in speculative articles. This can also be entitled "Further Reading" or "External Links". Section headings should be capitalised in the same manner as in article titles. Except in rare cases where a heading edit button would be strange or distracting (i.e. the template on the main page), HTML section tags should not be used. Instead, equals signs should be used. Title corresponds to , Title corresponds to , and so on. Level one headings (=Title= or Title) should never be used, as the tag is used as the article title. Tables of contents may be changed using magic word modifiers, but can never be shifted to the right. Otherwise forcing, removing, or shifting tables of contents is generally okay unless it is distracting to the article layout. Scientific Names In general, there are three kinds of scientific names: clade names, generic and subgeneric names, and binomials and trinomials. When writing these names, several conventions are strictly enforced. Clade Names Clade names can be written in two ways, English names, and scientific names. The two are often confused, but they should not be. English names include terms like "great ape" and "otter", but the terms "hominid" and "lutrine" are also common English terms. These should never be capitalised unless they are in a heading or title, or at the beginning of a sentence. Especially confusing is the case of the latter, but they are not to be confused with their capitalised scientific counterparts, Hominidae and Lutrinae. PhyloCode conventions should not be used, so clade names are never italicised. Generic and Subgeneric Names All genera and subgenera are italicised and capitalised. Following the example of cattle, the genus cannot be written "bos", "Bos" or "bos", but must be written as Bos. The subgenus is written like the genus, but in not italicised parentheses. The subgenus that cattle belong to is Bos (Bos). Binomials and Trinomials Specific and subspecific names in scientific names are italicised but not capitalised. The generic name can be abbreviated, and in names including subspecies, the specific name can as well. Continuing the example of cattle, the possible ways to write the scientific name of cattle (and the aurochs) are: *''Bos primigenius'' *''B. primigenius'' *''Bos primigenius taurus'' *''B. primigenius taurus'' *''B. p. taurus'' *''Bos'' (Bos) primigenius *''B.'' (Bos) primigenius *''B.'' (B.) primigenius *''Bos'' (Bos) primigenius taurus *''B.'' (Bos) primigenius taurus *''B.'' (B.) primigenius taurus *''B.'' (B.) p. taurus Images Naming We highly suggest be used to upload images. Special:Upload allows for naming, as opposed to the automatic naming system used by the editor's image upload. Names should not contain random characters (like 897868634.jpg) or a pixel prefix (like 220px-Example.jpg) and if they are discovered should be renamed. Self-descriptive names are also necessary, and files with names like Images.jpg should also be renamed. Quality Image quality is not a must on our wiki, but is still recommended. In general, the image quality and size should be dependent on the usage of the image. Although blurry images should be replaced, small images are usually acceptable. Images meant to be used as thumbs in article should be larger than 300 pixels. Project logos or other images meant to be large and not used as thumbs should be over 700 pixels. Although these are few, wiki backgrounds or similar images should be at least 1280 pixels. Layout Images should not distract the readers or disrupt the layout of a page in any way. Large centered images should only be used at the top of a page as project logos, and all other images in articles should be thumbs. Thumbs should have captions and can be shifted to the left or right. Thumbs should also be between 200 and 300 pixels, although slightly past either end of this range is usually acceptable. When an image appears directly below an infobox or another image, it is also usually necessary to have an image the same width as the infobox or image directly above it. Manual of Style Article Writing Conventions Speculative Writing When writing speculative articles, the conventions in article writing are generally more relaxed than those of formal writing. However, there are a few conventions to follow. These include viewpoint, bias, and writing style. Viewpoint and Tense Generally, the viewpoint and tense with which one is writing depends on the time period which the writing is focusing on. In future evolution (or exobiology taking place in the future, such as Terra Chordata), one or more viewpoints of the present are used. In a future evolution project, there are two variations, one in which it focuses on only one time period, and one in which it focuses on many. In the case of one, take the example of 50 million years given by After Man: A Zoology of the Future. The present tense is used for 50 million years in the future, the past tense for anything before that (including the less distant future, the present, and the past), and the future tense for insight into the world after 50 million years in the future. The same applies to the second type of future evolution projects, just that the point in time referred to using the present tense is variable. The future tense should not be used to refer to the point of focus, as it sounds informal and nonfactual. Thus, "The snowstalker will live in northern Europe 5 million years in the future" is bad practice, while "Five million years in the future, the snowstalker lives in northern Europe" is acceptable. In alternative evolution or "normal" exobiology, all tenses are as usual. When referring to the present (usually the point of focus) the present tense is used. Even if all points in time in a project are treated equally, the tenses still apply. The past uses the past tense, while the future uses future tense. Although the future is rarely gone over in detail in alternative evolution or usual exobiology, it is usually mentioned at some point, and should use the future tense.